Pancakes
by sosmitten
Summary: A fluffy postreconciliation moment.


**Disclaimer:** I do own the cookbook from which this recipe is modified. Everything else, though, belongs to the powers-that-be.

**Author's Note:** This is a scene that came to me while I made breakfast one day. I considered adding it to my post-finale series, but decided it worked better as a one-shot. I'm dedicating this bit of fluff to the **Round Table of Optimism** over at **TWoP.** Look forward to the endgame and think smiley puppy thoughts.

* * *

It's the first time she'd been to _Luke's_ for breakfast since she and Luke had starting taking tentative steps toward reconciling. She's been to the diner many times since then: mid-morning coffee breaks, lunch, and afternoon coffee breaks. It felt safer to visit in the middle of the day, to avoid the relative quiet of the dinner hour. When they had been together, dinner had been when they'd usually plotted where they'd sleep for the night, and towards the end, when Lorelai avoided asking so she didn't have to hear the weak excuses about why Luke wouldn't be coming over.

Breakfast, also, felt too intimate at first. Breakfast had always been the time that they'd said '_good morning'_ again, often making bawdy comments about just how good the morning had been. Or, if she'd been sleeping when he left, it was the first chance they'd have for a good morning kiss. Until they were back at that point, she wasn't quite ready to enter into those morning routines again.

But after their tentative reunion, after she'd started hanging out with Luke _and_ April at the diner, having dinner there had become a once in a while thing, sometimes with April, sometimes with Rory, and occasionally with all three of them together. And then sometimes, on the nights when business was slow, after Lorelai got up to leave Luke would call out to Cesar and walk her home, leaving her with a soft kiss on her brow. Or sometimes, gently placed on her lips.

Last night, when he'd asked if she'd stop in the next day, she thought maybe it was time - that if they couldn't have the same morning routine they'd had before, that maybe they could start to build a new one.

The next morning, she'd made her way into the bustling diner and given her order to Cesar, glad to know that meant that Luke was the one in the back making the pancakes. Because of that, she is shocked to find herself looking, a few minutes later, at a stack of pancakes that doesn't look quite right. And sadly, doesn't taste quite right either.

She makes her way to the counter, calling out, "Luke," about the same time that he appears from the kitchen.

"Lorelai!" he says, looking surprised to see her. "Cesar didn't tell me you were here."

She is almost derailed in her mission by his smile, which she returns briefly before thrusting the plate of pancakes toward him. "There's something wrong with these pancakes."

He glances down at the plate, clearly confused. "What are you talking about? They look fine."

"They're all pale and pasty looking. What did you do to them? Did you leave an ingredient out or something?"

He shifts a little, like he's been caught or something, saying again, "Cesar didn't tell me you were here," and she gets a strange little nervous tickle at the base of her spine.

"What does that have to do with my pancakes?"

"I didn't get a chance to mix yours up right."

"Mix mine up…?" She narrows her eyes at him. "What? Do you have a special batch that you spit into or something?"

"Lorelai, no!" he says with disgust. "Yes, I mean not with the spitting, but with the special batch."

"You make me special pancakes?" she asks, as the nervous feeling is slowly replaced by warmth spreading outward from her belly.

"Yeah." He's back to shifting uncomfortably, but now he's the one looking nervous.

"So, what's in them?" she asks excitedly. He doesn't answer for a moment, and she prompts him again, "Tell me."

He looks at her for a long moment, then dips his head, and she barely hears, "Whole wheat flour."

"What? You've been adding _what_ to my pancakes?"

He lifts his head and gives her a shrug, "So sue me. I just want to keep you healthy."

She looks back at him with a combination of awe and bewilderment, "But how? How did I not notice my pancakes getting all healthy and stuff?"

"It was gradual."

"Gradual? You mean like gradually increasing the amount of poison in the Queen's food, so she doesn't realize that her horrible illness is actually the cook trying to take her out?"

He snorts, saying sarcastically, "Yeah, that's exactly what it's like."

"Seriously, Luke. How did you do it?"

"I just started gradually replacing the white flour with whole wheat flour. At first I used whole-wheat pastry flour, because it's really finely ground. Then I started gradually shifting to regular wheat flour. And you didn't seem to notice, which surprised me, I have to say."

"Was it just my pancakes? Or everyone's?"

His sudden shyness is her answer.

"Really?" she says, feeling a wide grin dawn across her face. "You seriously have a special Lorelai batch of pancake batter?"

"Well," he starts, gesturing with his hand as he answers, "I have the dry ingredients mixed up. I just add the rest of the stuff as I make them."

She presses her hands to her chest, and when she responds, it's with a note of disbelief. "I can't believe you have a pancake recipe just for me." She pauses for a moment. "So, that's it? Just whole wheat flour?"

"Well," he hesitates, "there are a few other things…"

"She pounces on his admission, "Like what?"

"Wheat germ," he mumbles, "and wheat bran."

"Seriously?" He nods in confirmation. "And I didn't notice?"

He lifts his eyebrow. "Apparently not."

"How long?"

"What?"

"How long have you been doctoring with my food?"

"Since," he starts, then lets out a sigh, "since we got back together before, you know, the first time." He's not referred to their previous break-up since they've been back together, and she feels as uncomfortable as he appears when he stumbles over the words. If someone had told her when she and Luke had first gotten together that they'd have to endure two painful break-ups, she'd have run screaming. She's suddenly thankful that psychics remain something to mock on television.

"That long?"

He ducks his head in a gesture of admission.

"Is that all that's in the special pancakes?"

"Almost."

"Oh my God Luke, what else could you possibly put in there?"

"Last spring I started throwing in some ground flax seed."

"Flax seed?" she asks, incredulous. "Flax seed! Mrs. Kim cooks with flax seed, and you're putting it in my pancakes?"

He chuckles, and then shrugs. "You didn't seem to notice. Besides, it's really good for you. It's got Omega-3 fatty acids."

"Omega what?"

"Omega-3 fatty acids are an important nutrient, but they're mostly found in fish, and since you don't eat much fish…"

She can feel the her forehead wrinkling in consternation as she stares back at him. "So you put the crazy fish oil seeds in my _pancakes_? And how can something with the word 'fatty' in it be good for you anyway?"

"I didn't name it."

"You just mix it into my breakfast." She shakes her head back and forth. "I can't believe…" she says, her voice drifting off in quiet amazement. Then she replays his words and looks up at him with a sudden start. "Wait? Last spring? You were messing around with my pancake recipe last spring?" _Last spring_, she thinks. _We were hardly talking, but he was still making up recipes just for me._

He seems to have sensed the underlying sentiment, and he gives her a slow, small nod. Before she realizes what she's doing, she's thrown her body halfway across the counter, balancing her weight on his shoulders as she kisses him. "When she pulls back, she whispers, "I can't believe you did that."

"I just want you to live," he says simply.

She can feel her eyes growing wet, and she has to physically fight to keep the tears from spilling over.

He squeezes her hand as she lowers herself onto a stool, and says lightly, "So, now that I know that you're here, do you want me to make you some new pancakes?"

"You still have some of the special mix?"

"I can make some pretty quickly."

She doesn't answer right away, and when she does, she's skeptical, "Whole wheat flour, huh?"

"You didn't notice," he points out, "and in fact, you got so used to it, that these white flour starch-bombs didn't taste right."

She lets out a long breath. "Okay," He smiles and turns to go back to the kitchen.

Before he's even gone a few steps, she calls out, "Luke?"

"What," he asks, turning toward her again.

"You keep that fatty fish flax seed crap out of them, though. Okay?"

"That's a compromise I can live with," he says, laughing.

_Fin_

Luke's Special Lorelai Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon wheat bran (optional)

1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)

1 tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients together, then combine wet ingredients together. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. If the batter is too thick, add more buttermilk or lowfat milk to adjust consistency.

If adding blueberries, strawberries, bananas, or chocolate chips, sprinkle on pancakes after batter is in the pan and before flipping.

NOTE: Luke usually mixes up a large batch of the dry ingredients and makes a small amount of batter at a time by adding the appropriate amount of buttermilk, oil and egg to the dry mix.


End file.
